<font color='#000000'>I would have to agree that among the receivers, Yamaha appears to make the best phono stage. Approx. 13 yrs ago I bought the then flagship RX-1130, a pre-DSP, titanium, 130 watts/ch, clean sounding receiver with only rudimentary sorround modes (no CC), whose phono stage allowed both MM/MC, and worked fine for midfi turntables. But if you want to push the boundaries of analog then I agree that a dedicated phono preamp is needed for top-notch RIAA equalization.
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